


when's the last time you saw the sky?

by flannelblues



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Autistic Spencer Reid, Friendship, Gen, Luke is a good friend, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Prison, its a difficult time.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-12
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:01:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28710888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flannelblues/pseuds/flannelblues
Summary: Luke visits Spencer while he's in prison, it's an awkward half-hour.
Relationships: Luke Alvez & Spencer Reid
Comments: 10
Kudos: 48





	when's the last time you saw the sky?

The first thing he sees when he walks through the threshold onto the cold, lemon-scented tile is Luke, among numerous friends and family of Milburn’s other inmates, sitting at table number seventeen. He’s quite literally twiddling his thumbs as the sometimes hushed, sometimes obnoxiously loud conversations travel around him. It only takes a moment for him to meet Spencer’s eyes. 

“Reid! How you feeling?” Luke stands up quickly, offering a hand out to greet the younger man. 

“No physical contact.” Spencer forces a small half-smile, quietly announcing the reprimand before a guard shouts at the two of them.

“Ah- crap, sorry,” Pulling his chair out further to sit back down, Luke scratches behind his right ear. “I’m always forgetting that, aren’t I?”

“You should see Garcia when she’s here.” Despite his best efforts, it’s abundantly clear that there’s little, if any, humor behind the statement, but it earns a snigger from Luke nonetheless.

Admittedly, Spencer doesn’t recognize most of the other inmates in the room. Just a few tables away, there’s a woman with hair reaching down to her waist wearing an olive coat, her frail hands reaching as far as she dares to a man Spencer can only assume is her lover. There’s something like agony deeply settled in her features. Just behind the couple, he can see the entrance to the center as well as the reception, and more importantly, a hand sanitizer pump.

What he’d give to repeatedly douse himself in it, feel it all but burn the germs on his skin away.

“Oh and before you ask, the last case, you know, the one with the guy who paralyzed his victims? We got him after only three victims.” Luke’s avoiding looking at the all too visible bruises littering Spencer’s unshaven face, that’s kind of him, Spencer thinks so.

“That’s good- That’s really good. Thank you for telling me.”

It’s only the second time Luke’s visited him here, and it’s not like they’ve known each other for very long. Hell, up until right before he went to prison Spencer still couldn’t stop thinking of Luke as the man who’d been sitting in Derek’s chair at the roundtable. And so, they sit there, certainly not in literal silence, but the conversation is forced and ignores several elephants currently in the room.

That is, until someone punches a table mid-laugh a few tables away and Spencer shuts his eyes tightly, shrinking into himself. Feels the taste of a sock in his mouth.

“Hey- look, you’re okay right now? You know?” Luke reaches out to touch his shoulder before the guard glares at him. 

“I know, it’s just,” Spencer makes a vague gesture with his trembling, callused hand before it drops to his side.

“I know, Spencer.” Luke finishes for him, and he really does mean it. He takes a deep breath. “I know you probably want to take your mind off things right now? And that’s okay, I get it. But you have to talk about this- prison, to someone, man.” He breathes out, and gives Spencer a small smile. “But I’m not going to force you.”

They fall into a few moments of just sitting there, both staring at the table. 

“Roxy, my dog, she’s super smart, right? I’m teaching her more tricks lately, hand-shakes and all that. But anyway, Garcia’s bought her this pink sweater. And let me tell you, Roxy wearing a knitted pink sweater and doing all her tricks, it’s like, the cutest thing.”   
  


“It sounds like it.” Spencer manages to smile, for real. He’s not big on dogs, but he appreciates how happy they’ve always seemed to make his friends.

“You have any pets?” Luke smiles back at him.

“Just some fish. I think they look nice, and I have an automated feeder for mine when I’m on cases.” Or in prison for a crime that he knows he didn’t commit.

“I had a goldfish when I was a kid, my Mom ended up feeding it most of the time though. But my sister, she was older so she got a cat-” And Spencer tries to take in what Luke is saying, he really does, but he can see the man who shoved a sock down his throat two nights ago staring straight at him. 

Visiting hours don’t last for much longer, and they’ll be cut even shorter if Luke has to leave early for a case. Luke, who doesn’t really have any reason to be here anyway, Spencer’s barely his friend, can and will leave the visitation room soon. And that means Spencer has to go back to the other inmates, and worse, back into his cell in a few short (but so long) hours.

He can’t go back to his cell. It’s not safe. 

“Has there been any progress with Scratch? Anything at all?” He says quietly, abruptly.

Luke swallows and looks down at the table. “Not yet. I’m sorry.”

Spencer’s immediate thought is to tell Luke, someone who is feeling bad, someone who is currently apologizing to him, that it’s okay. Sorry to bother you, it’s not that big of a deal. But they’d both recognize it as an obvious lie.

He knows that his team, no, the team, are doing everything in their power to get him out. 

But it needs to happen soon. Sooner than it likely will at this rate.

An unwelcome quiet settles neatly between them. 

“I’ve started journaling,” Spencer says, giving Luke a feeble attempt at a smile as he taps his index finger on the table.

  
“Is it helping you?” Luke mirrors Spencer and begins rapidly tapping his finger.

“I don’t really know. I’m,” He knows it’s stupid, but he lowers his voice even more than before, “I’m worried about it getting stolen. I can’t even write about my job, because if someone does find out-” Luke knows as well as he does that it’d basically be a death sentence for him.

“You could try writing in code? Like how in elementary school how kids call their crushes random objects instead of their names, that sort of thing.” He has zero idea as to what Luke is referring to, and it admittedly sounds a little silly. But it’s kind of him to offer the advice.

“I’ll try that. Thank you, really.” He replies, and he means it too.

As if on cue, a guard walks up behind him and says, his voice flat, yet still loud-

“Your visitation hours for today are over in five minutes.”

“I’ll say hi to the team for you. JJ should be coming in on Sunday.” Luke stops tapping his finger, as does the man on the other side of the table.

Spencer can actually see Luke move to hug him, as well as immediately stopping himself. 

“Thanks.” He stands up and as he does so, the woman with long hair and the olive coat has ugly tears streaming down her face. What had she and the man been talking about, he wonders.

“Be safe- please.” 

_It’s not that simple_ , Spencer wants to say. He could die tonight for all he knows. 

“I will. Bye, Alvez.” It’s close enough.

**Author's Note:**

> not super happy with this but yknow.
> 
> lemme know if you liked it! :)
> 
> tumblr: o11hys


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